The St. Charles herald. [volume] (Hahnville, La.) 1873-1993, 1887-01-01
hlNpoo WIDOWS.
The Truly Helpless Condition of These UH
fortunate Women.

fortunate Women.
The formal period of mourning for a
widow in Bengal lasts for one month
with the Kayasths. the most numerous
and influential class in that part of In.
dia-the Brahmins keeping only ten
days. During this time she has to pre-
pare her own food, combining herself I'd
a single meal day, which consists of
boiled coarse rice, simplest vegetables,
clarified butter, and milk. She can on
no account touch meat, fish, eggs, or
any delicacy at all; she is forbidden to
do up her hair and to put any scent or
oil ON her body. She must put on the
same cotton sari day and night, eveil
when it is wet, and must eschew the
pleasure of a bed and lie down on
bare ground, or perhaps on coarse
blanket spread on it. In some cases
she can not even have her HAIR dried
in the sun after her daily morning
ablutioni which she must go through
before she can put particle of food III
her mouth. The old women say that
the soul of man after his death as
cends to Heaven quickly and pleasant
ly in proportion 20 the bodily infections
which his wife can undergo in the
month after the death of her husband.
Consequently the new-made widow, if
not for any other reason, at least for
the benefit of the soul of her departed
husband, must submit to continuous
abstinence and excruciating self-inflic-
tions. A whole month passes in this
state, of semi-starvation. The funeral
ceremonies which drag on till the end
of that period, are all performed, and
the rigid observances of the widow of q
little relaxed. if it may be so termed,
since the only relaxation allowed to
her is that she need not prepare the
food with her own hands, and that she
can change her clothes, but always
using only plain cotton saris. The
real misery of the widow, however,
begins after the first month. 1t is not
for her deceased husband, and that she
undergoes all the aforementioned
bodily privations. She must also bear
the most CALLING indignities and the
most humiliating self-sacrifices. She
can not take an active part in any
religious or social ceremony. II there
be wedding in the house the widow
must not touch or in any way interfere
with the articles that are used to keep
the curious marriage customs. During
the poojahs, or religious festivals, she
is but grudgingly allowed to approach
near the object of generation, and in
some bigoted families the contact of a
widow is supposed to pollute the ma
terials requisite for the performance OF
marriage ceremonies. The widow is,
in fact, looked upon as the "evil one
of the house. If she has no son OF
daughter TO comfort her, or if she has
to pass her whole life, as is often the
case, with her husbands family, hel
condition truly becomes helpless one
During any ceremony or grand occa
sion she has silently to look on, Others
around her enjoying and sporting
themselves, and if some kind relation
does not come to relieve her tediun
she has hardly any thing to do but t
ruminate on her present sad, wretchet
condition. Every female member of |
family, whether married or unmarried
can go to parties, but widow can not
and if she expresses any wish to joii
the family on such occasions it is in
stantly repressed by the curt rebuke O
her mother-in.law or some other rela
ton that ''she is widow and she mus
not have such wishes. '--DdvendrG N
DdS, IN Nineteenth Century.